Wednesday November 3, 2010 I finally identified Actinosphaerium sp., spotting two individuals, in my MicroAquarium and took a nice photograph that I plan to post next week. In the past I have misidentified Halteria sp. as Actinosphaerium within my blog so I will edit my earlier post to reflect this new knowledge.
Actinosphaerium are much larger than Halteria and move more slowly. They are very much less abundant also, with Halteria being one of the most predominant organisms in my MicroAquarium. Halteria sp. makes very rapid movements making it difficult to get a close up photo because as soon as one is in focus it jumps out of the frame. Below this post is a video I made Wednesday of a number of Halteria sp. (Patterson 1996) feeding on bacteria. The bacteria are consuming a dead rotifer. You can see how Halteria move in the video.
The carnivorous plant, Utricularia gibba L, has small gourd shaped traps spaced along its length. In one of the traps I could see a seed shrimp that appeared to be alive. The traps have some kind of fibers that let prey enter but close off the exit as kind of a flexible funnel where the outlet of the funnel expands but contracts once the prey has passed.
In one part of the MicroAquarium there appears to be a small green algae bloom. Many individuals of a green organism that appear to be fairly immobile where arrayed in a fan shape. I hope to identify them next week.
Citation:
Patterson DJ. 1996. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa. London: Manson Publishing, Ltd.
No comments:
Post a Comment